Joanne Burns was born in Sydney in 1945 and lived there for majority of her life. She attended Sydney University where she left to teach English and creative writing at many high schools in Australia and England. As well as writing poetry and prose she also found time to write many newspaper articles and other everyday sources. In the 1980's Joanne was involved in the writing Sydney Woman Writers' Workshop. Over the years, she has published ten collections of poetry and has won many Awards for her works.
The opening sentence, “Did I leave them or did they leave me...” represents a strong history between the main character and her dolls. Although, her dolls may have played a significant role in her life, they cannot participate completely in her adventures and life's lessons. The dolls, reveal snapshots in the life of the main character. When she leaves Joan (first stanza) at the bottom of the slide, she is experimenting with her ability to try new things and adventures on her own, as represented in the quote “I didn't need a dolls hand then...” She is branching out and testing her abilities on her own.
In the second stanza, she uses the dolls, Margaret and Sharon to practice the skills she has been taught I.e swimming. This enforces the idea that the girl learns that all through life, we can use the lessons that we are taught to guide others through uneasy situations that they may be experiencing.
Through the 3rd stanza, her doll Dinah, had been badly mistreated and for that, the girl feels guilty, which can easily be identified in the line “an early moment of buried sense of failure to get things exactly right”. The reader is then positioned to believe that the girl suddenly realises that throughout life, we experience many failures, but then, we use our life lessons and support groups around us to learn from our mistakes.
The last stanza expresses the girl finally breaking free from the need of the dolls and going through her life, experimenting and going on adventures on her own and learning from her own faults. We believe the dolls in this poem are a metaphor for her growth into adulthood and her realization and understanding of many important life lessons. It is true to say that after again reading the first line, “Did I leave them, or did they leave me..” we can easily identify that it is there to foreshadow her growth as a person and how over time, she became less dependent of her dolls and became a more independent person.
Joanne Burns
Joanne Burns was born in Sydney in 1945 and lived there for majority of her life. She attended Sydney University where she left to teach English and creative writing at many high schools in Australia and England. As well as writing poetry and prose she also found time to write many newspaper articles and other everyday sources. In the 1980's Joanne was involved in the writing Sydney Woman Writers' Workshop. Over the years, she has published ten collections of poetry and has won many Awards for her works.
Sand- Analysis
The opening sentence, “Did I leave them or did they leave me...” represents a strong history between the main character and her dolls. Although, her dolls may have played a significant role in her life, they cannot participate completely in her adventures and life's lessons. The dolls, reveal snapshots in the life of the main character. When she leaves Joan (first stanza) at the bottom of the slide, she is experimenting with her ability to try new things and adventures on her own, as represented in the quote “I didn't need a dolls hand then...” She is branching out and testing her abilities on her own.In the second stanza, she uses the dolls, Margaret and Sharon to practice the skills she has been taught I.e swimming. This enforces the idea that the girl learns that all through life, we can use the lessons that we are taught to guide others through uneasy situations that they may be experiencing.
Through the 3rd stanza, her doll Dinah, had been badly mistreated and for that, the girl feels guilty, which can easily be identified in the line “an early moment of buried sense of failure to get things exactly right”. The reader is then positioned to believe that the girl suddenly realises that throughout life, we experience many failures, but then, we use our life lessons and support groups around us to learn from our mistakes.
The last stanza expresses the girl finally breaking free from the need of the dolls and going through her life, experimenting and going on adventures on her own and learning from her own faults. We believe the dolls in this poem are a metaphor for her growth into adulthood and her realization and understanding of many important life lessons. It is true to say that after again reading the first line, “Did I leave them, or did they leave me..” we can easily identify that it is there to foreshadow her growth as a person and how over time, she became less dependent of her dolls and became a more independent person.